Books like Nevernight
What should you read after Jay Kristoff’s novel? It depends on what you loved most about it.
- Jay Kristoff
- 2016
- Dark fantasy
What did you love about it?
Choosing one reorders everything below.
Best books to read after Nevernight
Ranked overall. Pick what you loved above to re-rank them.
Best overall matchThe Poppy War
R. F. Kuang
A furious girl claws into an elite academy, finds a power that costs her everything, and uses it anyway. Kuang matches Kristoff's cruelty and beats him on consequence.
- Revenge planned for years
- A school for assassins
- Students killing students
- War atrocity depicted directly
Great matchThrone of Glass
Sarah J. Maas
An assassin competing for the right to serve a king she despises. Less vicious than Mia and more romantic, but the same fantasy of lethal competence in a ballgown.
- A school for assassins
- Revenge planned for years
- Students killing students
- Softer than Nevernight
Best for the schoolRed Sister
Mark Lawrence
Warrior nuns training children to kill, handled with more control than Kristoff manages. If the Red Church was your reason for reading, this is the better version.
- A school for assassins
- Students killing students
- Revenge planned for years
- Colder prose, less swagger
Great matchThe Lies of Locke Lamora
Scott Lynch
The same taste for gorgeous cruelty and a hero raised by a criminal education, though Lynch's lessons are in confidence tricks rather than poisons.
- Revenge planned for years
- Ornate, showy prose
- A city of three suns
- Con artistry, not assassination
Great matchAn Ember in the Ashes
Sabaa Tahir
A military academy where cadets are executed for failing, seen from a slave's side and a soldier's. Nevernight's savagery, with rather more heart in it.
- A school for assassins
- Students killing students
- Revenge planned for years
- Romance carries more weight
Great matchMistborn
Brandon Sanderson
A street girl taught to kill by a crew with a plan against an immortal tyrant. Sanderson swaps Kristoff's decadence for clean mechanics and an excellent payoff.
- Revenge planned for years
- A school for assassins
- A shadow that eats fear
- Much less sex and gore
Worth a look — with a warningThe Name of the Wind
Patrick Rothfuss
The other great magic-school novel, by the other author who loves the sound of his own sentences. Come for the prose, not for the body count.
- Ornate, showy prose
- A school for assassins
- Revenge planned for years
- Very little violence
Great matchThe Bone Season
Samantha Shannon
A clairvoyant criminal captured and trained by an inhuman order: the coerced apprenticeship, plus a city underworld Mia would recognise on sight.
- A school for assassins
- A shadow that eats fear
- A city of three suns
- Heavy jargon in the early chapters
Worth a look — with a warningGraceling
Kristin Cashore
A girl whose gift is killing, working out whether she wants to be the weapon everyone assumes she is. Nevernight's question, asked far more gently.
- Revenge planned for years
- A school for assassins
- Students killing students
- Much lighter and cleaner
Great matchShadow and Bone
Leigh Bardugo
An orphan taken to a palace of magic-users and taught by a man who is very obviously trouble. The training arc, without the knives in the dark.
- A shadow that eats fear
- A school for assassins
- Revenge planned for years
- Chosen-one framing
Great matchThe Cruel Prince
Holly Black
Jude wants power in a court that despises her and is entirely willing to poison for it. The scheming and the loathing-into-longing, with real style.
- Revenge planned for years
- Ornate, showy prose
- A city of three suns
- Faerie court, not assassin school
Best for more of MiaGodsgrave
Jay Kristoff
Book two: Mia sells herself into the gladiator arena to get close to her targets. The direct continuation, and its late twist justifies the whole series.
- Revenge planned for years
- Footnotes with a voice
- Students killing students
- Explicit content increases
Worth a look — with a warningThe Bear and the Nightingale
Katherine Arden
For the atmosphere rather than the assassins: Arden writes darkness as cold and old rather than bloody, and her ornament is earned line by line.
- Ornate, showy prose
- A shadow that eats fear
- A city of three suns
- Slow, quiet pacing
What should you read after Nevernight?
Nevernight by Jay Kristoff works on several levels at once, and which book you should read next depends on which of those levels got you. For most readers the closest match is The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang — a furious girl claws into an elite academy, finds a power that costs her everything, and uses it anyway. Kuang matches Kristoff's cruelty and beats him on consequence.
If what stayed with you was a school for assassins, read Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas instead: an assassin competing for the right to serve a king she despises. Less vicious than Mia and more romantic, but the same fantasy of lethal competence in a ballgown. Red Sister by Mark Lawrence is the other strong option — warrior nuns training children to kill, handled with more control than Kristoff manages. If the Red Church was your reason for reading, this is the better version.
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